Well, I gues it was just over-promoted too soon. Just like the bitinstant debit card . The video on the website was talking about solar powered P2P mesh network for bitcoin payments - the cryptoanarchist wet dream. We even saw a pictures of real product on the forum. However, hype started to fall over time, website went down, no updates on forum... You have to admit it looked like just another fallen bitcoin startup. I'm glad that project development continues and wish you best luck.

Sunday night, late evening, I’m perusing Facebook. I see an odd post in my news feed. Some page I follow, “Bitcoin Informant,” posts a screenshot of BitInstant’s new Bitcoin debit card. I know exactly what it is already, because I designed it, the problem is that I didn’t realize the file had ever left my computer.

“Ehh, no” I tell Roger, “we haven’t announced that yet.” Crap… we must’ve been hacked. Our secret industrial information has been leaked everywhere. Our plans are ruined. I text Charlie to see if he knows anything.

Five minutes pass…

“my bad” he responds.

After a few texts of clarification, it turns out Charlie leaked everything from a late-night IRC chat. That’s how my screenshot got out and made it to Facebook. The debit card program is now in the wild. No biggie, so what if an obscure blog picked it up, and details seem reasonably accurate, so I’m not too worried. Hey, at least it’s some free press, right? Time for bed, I’ll deal with it in tomorrow morning at work.

By Monday morning, the story spread to a dozen high profile news sites. TheNextWeb, ArsTechnica, Engadget, MemeBurn, Y-Combinator… and of course, there’s a 3-page forum thread already at BitcoinTalk.org.

At the office, Charlie is half embarrassed at his IRC philandering and half ecstatic at all the publicity. Within minutes, CNN has called. Reporter wants to come in to interview us.

Bitcoin pioneer. An apostle of Satoshi Nakamoto. A crusader for a new, better, tech-driven society. A dreamer.

Hardware practically done, test units are in the office, just working on finishing the software and simplifying the UI. Hope to ship by end of the year, or early next year. Due to battery limitations (technology not there yet) the always-on mesh part will not work in the first versions of it, so radio will only be on and transmit when the card is on. We will probably implement full mesh when better battery technology comes out (carbon, or nanotube). You can see pictures of the device as it is now on http://www.mycelium.com